Antares

Gotz Spielmann is a true auteur. His film-making style is instantly recognizable, weaving a spell. What's going on in front of the camera can be merely someone shutting a door, a couple having explicit sex, a violent car crash, two people having an argument, but that camera is not moving. This makes you highly aware of everything in the frame and everything is there for a reason. You notice colors, especially white, black and red. Virtually no music, except some smoky sax over the credits. His constant use of medium shots remind you that you are not "there," you are just an observer.

The movie portrays a highly contrived, but nevertheless convincing, story on the theme of sexual betrayal. Three couples who live in the same apartment building (but do not know each other) are introduced and their stories are told, one at a time. We meet a very reserved nurse and mother who is having a passionate affair behind her husband's back. Then, a supermarket checkout clerk, not emotionally stable, who has falsely told her Yugoslavian boyfriend that she is pregnant in hopes of hanging on to him. Finally, a divorced woman dealing with a racist and thuggish ex-husband who won't let go.

As the movie progresses, odd events get explained. Once, a couple walking in the courtyard hear a woman scream. Later in the movie we see the scene of the screaming woman.

The movie generates an enormous amount of suspense as it unfolds. Will the nurse confess to her husband? Will the checkout clerk come clean about her false pregnancy? Will the divorced woman be seriously harmed by her increasingly erratic ex-husband? As the last question, it is answered in a harrowing psychological confrontation that will have you on the edge of your seat. What people are eating and where they eat it also seems to matter.

It leave it to others to explain the meaning of the roses in a vase, the dog trainer, the hooker on the corner and other apparent signifiers in the film.

If you liked this, be sure to check out Spielmann's "Revanche," which is even better.

Solid believable acting and good production values ...but I couldn't care any less about any of the characters. The plot is jumbled, superficial and not very engaging. Nothing gets resolved and the ending was very disappointing ...but by then; I was glad it was over.

First off, the only reason I watched this is because the listing said it was in German (though I think the film is Austrian) and I rarely watch European films that aren't from the U.K. or France. In the first story, everything and everyone is utterly robotic, impersonal, and empty (even the sex). What's the point of even bothering with the sex when it's so meaningless and grimey? I suspect that people are giving this film more credit than it deserves because of the explicit sex in the first story, but they're gross, older people with flat, unimpressive bodies being increasingly weird. In the second story, we have a pair of selfish, co-dependent liars (one of which is constantly unpleasant and insecure) who shouldn't be together and don't actually even seem to be in love. You wonder why they even bother. In the third story, there are more miserable, unlikable people but worse because one is a rude, violent, woman-hating, bigoted sleazeball, and his wife can't manage to keep her doggone door closed to him even though she has no real reason to let him in. She keeps telling him it's over but keeps letting him in--why?? None of it moved me, though I committed to finishing it, but I just couldn't care less about the empty, unlikable shells of people. I can see why it got less favorable reviews by critics elsewhere.

S/N: The daughter's dancing is as emotionless and robotic and awful as her parents' relationship.

Some solid performance and quality for 2004 Austrian cinema. the plot is simple straight forward about 3 stories which are connected to each other. A good movie but ending is not very satisfied / un-finished.

some sex scenes are very hot. seems like unsimulated one.

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the 1st story about couple seems completed, about a cheating wife who lacks passion or desire from husband , so she goes for other man. and in the end. husband wants her back?.... simp..

2nd is not completed , about a gf who faked are pregnancy and her cheating bf. in the end she is ok with bf even she knows he is cheating ? .

3rd story is kinda completed , about abusive husband, karma hit him in end.

This film tells three intertwined stories of the residents of an apartment building. This style of filmmaking has become popular of late, following the early success of Robert Altman ("Nashville" and "Short Cuts") and Alejandro Inarritu ("Amores Perros" and "Babel"). This one, however, falls far short of those films. Of the three episodes, the first one is the most interesting, featuring a nurse in a loveless marriage having a brief affair. The other two episodes concern low-lifes making each other's lives miserable. Neither the characters nor the stories are particularly interesting. Of course everything comes together in a predictable finish.